Nelson, Duke battle past miscues to beat Indiana

Nov 29, 2006 - 4:57 AM
DURHAM, North Carolina (Ticker) -- It was not pretty but
DeMarcus Nelson and Duke remained unbeaten against the Big Ten
Conference.

Nelson scored 19 points as the 10th-ranked Blue Devils overcame
the loss of an early lead to improve to 8-0 in the ACC-Big Ten
Challenge with a 54-51 victory over Indiana.

Despite being the only team from the two conferences to remain
perfect in the event, the win was quite uncharacteristic for
Duke (6-1), which saw a 12-point halftime advantage disappear
behind spotty shooting and survived some late free throw and
turnover struggles.

"We couldn't catch the ball and we couldn't dribble," Duke coach
Mike Krzyzewski said. "Then to go down to the other end (on
defense) and play beautiful basketball; it seems crazy. To play
with a low efficiency on offense and still win is kind of
incredible."

Nelson, who finished 6-of-10 from the field with three
3-pointers, had a chance to add to a 53-51 lead after he was
fouled on the defensive end by Mike White battling for a rebound
with 54 seconds left. However, the junior guard airballed his
first attempt and had the second rattle out.

After forward D.J. White failed to handle a pass from Mike White
down low, the Hoosiers had an inbound pass under the basket
stolen by Blue Devils' freshman Gerald Henderson with 30 seconds
to play.

Henderson managed to split two free throws, making it 54-51, and
Indiana took an ill-advised 3-point attempt that eventually
went out of bounds to Duke with 11 seconds to play.

Despite the missed opportunities, the Hoosiers were given one
more when Nelson mishandled the inbounds pass, putting the ball
in Errek Suhr's hands with seven seconds left.

Suhr, who scored five points and played outstanding defense on
Duke point guard Greg Paulus, dribbled toward the lane and
flipped the ball out on the left wing to Armon Bassett, who
passed up a clean look before forcing up a shot between two
defenders that fell short of the rim.

Freshman Jon Scheyer scored 10 points and Josh McRoberts added
seven and seven rebounds for Duke, which missed its first eight
shots of the second half to allow Indiana to rally from a 33-21
halftime deficit.

"Today not much looked good on offense," said Krzyzewski, whose
team shot 32 percent (14-of-44). "If you have a choice of where
you want to be, when you can have one or the other, this is the
choice you'd like to have because you can still win with
defense and rebounding. The offense will come."

Bassett scored 12 points for the Hoosiers (3-2), who tied the
contest at 40-40 on a pull-up jumper by Earl Calloway with 12:12
remaining, but could never take the lead.

Suhr, who played sparingly in the first half, scored all five of
his points during a 13-5 run that was capped by Calloway's
jumper.

"Suhr took his team when they were drowning and picked them all
up," Krzyzewski said. "What a courageous performance by that
kid."

Joey Shaw scored nine points off the bench and D.J. White
finished with seven and six rebounds for Indiana, which shot 39
percent (20-of-52) and committed 16 turnovers.

Paulus, who broke his foot in preseason practice, continued to
work his way back into the lineup, finishing with five points
and two assists in 20 minutes before fouling out with 3:02
remaining.

"Medically, his foot is 100 percent but his conditioning is not
along with his repetitions in playing the game," Krzyzewski
said. "When you're off for five weeks, it takes time. He'll be
there."